The present invention is broadly directed to containers and systems that may be used for shipping parcels in a parcel carrier industry. In addition, the present invention concerns methods used by those carriers to transport parcels between senders and recipients. The present invention especially concerns containers, systems and methods that integrate advantageous and cost saving techniques wherein the shipping pouches/containers and palleting cartons and structures can be reused.
A fundamental need of commerce based societies is the transportation of goods from one location to another. The development of various postal systems, first on the national and then on an international basis, established an organized system wherein a carrier, for a price, would convey a parcel from a shipper to a recipient. The service provided by such carriers resulted in increasing demand and expansion of their served customer based. In addition to the governmentally sponsored postal services, private carriers have been organized to transport a wide variety of parcels for paying customers. Such companies include those known as United Parcel Service, Federal Express, DHL, Airborne and Emory, to name a few. The proliferation of such companies demonstrates the increasing need for their services.
In addition to the ordinary demands on the parcel carrier industry, the expansion of internet commerce already has and is expected to continue to place increasing demands on the need to ship small parcels from a merchant to a customer. The role of the parcel carrier is becoming increasingly integral to the success or failure of consumer""s on-line experience and business in general. Shippers know the importance of having a dependable carrier who ultimately provides dependable service to the end-use customer.
The shipping trend in recent times has been toward smaller parcels, some of which are breakable but the majority of which are considered non-fragile or non-breakable. Indeed, as much as 65% to 70% of the entire parcel market in the United States may be classified as non-fragile, meaning that the actual products being shipped are resistant to damage if handled with any degree of care. However, traditional shipping techniques as far as packaging the parcels are not varied greatly between fragile and non-fragile items with the sometimes exception of the degree of cushioning in the material used for more fragile items.
For the past 40-50 years, shippers have been conditioned to excessively package parcel shipments because there have been few alternatives. Such excessive packaging leads to increased packing costs. This packaging cost results from two factors. First, the cost of packaging materials is not trivial. Typically, parcels are packed inside a one-time use only container, such as a paperboard carton, with the interior of the container filled with cushioning materials, such as styrofoam xe2x80x9cpeanutsxe2x80x9d, shredded paper or other paper based filler, to name a few. Second, there is a substantial time investment in packaging that results from the need to carefully pack and seal the paperboard carton and prepare the shipping documents for the same.
In addition to the problem of cost, packing waste is one of the leading contributors to landfill waste today and is a frustration for both the shipper and the recipient. This results from the need to inventory and dispose of these non-reusable materials. As internet commerce and mobile inventory management processes continue to grow, waste from shipped parcels can only be expected to worsen. This is especially true since a vast majority of parcels are excessively over-packaged with the actual product accounting for only about 25% of the available space inside each paperboard box. This is despite the fact that a majority of products could have been shipped without any packaging materials.
Such wasted space also reduces the volume shipping capacity of carriers, be the air transport or land based transport, such as trucks. The shipping of the packaging waste exhibits both direct costs as well as indirect costs in increased fuel consumption, wear and tear on airports, highways, etc. as well as environmental impact. By reducing the amount of waste materials, such indirect costs could be reduced.
While carriers profess to be interested in understanding the hardships on shippers, the only response to these hardships seems to have been in logistics planning. Little effort has been made to avoid unnecessary effort because the carriers would be required to change the service that they offer. Further, the presence of several dominant players in the carrier industry have virtually dictated the packaging techniques that have been used for the last few decades, with these rules being those that have resulted in the costs discussed above.
Therefore, while current handling methods were acceptable in the past, there has been an increasing need felt for many years to develop better parcel handling techniques. The environmental and financial factors have been suggesting for many years the need for better solutions to providing carrier services. Indeed, even political factors are changing with governmental agencies listing the activities of box packaging and taping as an activity subject for repetitive motion injury. Accordingly, there is an ever increasing need for solutions to reduce or eliminate the liabilities of current parcel packaging and carriage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and useful container for shipping parcels between locations.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and useful shipping system of containers, cartons and pallets that reduce the volume necessary to ship parcels between locations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a reusable container that avoids the requirement of excessive parcel cushioning materials.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a simple, reusable container that reduces the time necessary to containerize parcels as well as one that reduces the risk of repetitive motion injury.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a shipping system including reusable containers and reusable carton/totes that protect parcels during shipment.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and useful method for shipping parcels from shippers to recipients that incorporates the containers and system noted above.
It is still a further object of the present invention is to provide a method for shipping parcels that can increase the ease of sorting and tracking such parcels.
According to one aspect of the present invention then, a container is provided that is adapted to receive a parcel for shipment to an intended recipient. Broadly, this container includes a container body that has an interior and a mouth communicating with the interior. A closure is provided that is movable between an open position such that the parcel may be inserted and removed from the interior and a closed position to retain the parcel in the interior as a received parcel. A removable label is also provided and includes a strip constructed of a selected strip material along with an area to receive information corresponding to an address of the intended recipient. The label also has a layer of selected adhesive. The container has a label panel secured to the container body with the label panel including an exposed surface portion formed of a material to which the selected adhesive will adhere sufficiently to retain the label on the container body during shipment yet from which the label may be forcefully removed without tearing the strip of material.
In one embodiment of the invention, the container is in the form of a flexible pouch. The pouch includes first and second body panels joined about a majority of their periphery thereof to define a sealed edge with an unjoined portion defining the mouth. The closure of such pouch can then be a zipper having a pull-tab. A first grommet may be disposed on the first body panel and a second grommet made to be disposed on the second body panel with each of the first and second grommets being located proximately to the pull-tab of the zipper when the zipper is closed. This defines a locking structure for the pouch. A locking member is then provided and is operative to engage the first and second grommets and the pull-tab thereby to secure the zipper in the closed position. This locking member may be a cable tie that extends through the grommets and engages the pull-tab, such as extending through the eye thereof. The first and second body panels may be formed with a multi-layered construction that includes a cushioning layer interposed between first and second fabric layers.
The label panel, as noted, has a release material that allows the adhesive label to be removed so that the container may be reused. Here, the label panel may be formed by a layer of plastic material that is coated with polytetrafluoroethylene. This label panel may be affixed by sewing or other technique to the container body. In addition, a signal transmitter may be secured to the container body such as, but not limited to the enclosing of the signal transmitter between the layers of the body panels of a multi-layered constructed pouch. This signal transmitter, such as an RF transmitter, can be used to track the parcel through shipping check points and may also provide electronic addressing capability.
The shipping system of the present invention incorporates a container such as the containers discussed above. Here, the system includes a plurality of labels and a plurality of flexible containers so a label may be placed on and selectively removed from the flexible container after shipment. A plurality of cartons or totes are also provided for the system with each carton having a bottom and a surrounding sidewall to form a carton interior. Each carton is adapted to receive a plurality of the flexible containers with received parcels in the carton interior thereof to form a filled carton. Further, a plurality of the filled cartons are stackable one on top of another as a stacked ensemble. The system then includes a plurality of support pallets with each support pallet adapted to support at least one stacked ensemble of filled cartons placed thereon a supported ensemble. It is desirable, though, that each pallet support a plurality of supported ensembles. In any event, a plurality of cover pallets are also provided with each cover pallet adapted to be placed over the one or more supported ensembles on the support pallet. Connector assemblies are then adapted to fasten a respective support pallet to a respective cover pallet as a pallet pair thereby to secure the pallet pair together to define a palletized load. The support pallets and a cover pallets may have a common construction. Moreover, they may be constructed so that two palletized loads may be stacked one on top of another with adjacent ones of the support pallets and cover pallets interlocking with one another. This interlocking structure may be provided by rails on the support pallets and cover pallets.
The method of shipping parcels from a shipper located at a respective origin location to an intended recipient each located at a respective designation location may be summarized by certain steps of such method. First, at a respective location correlated to a respective shipper and in any order, the method includes packing each of the parcels to be shipped by the respective shipper in an individual reusable container; labeling each of the containers to be shipped by the respective shipper with information corresponding to an address of a respective intended recipient; and closing each container with the respective parcel therein to define a shipping package. These steps are repeated for each respective shipper. If desired, the step of packing each of the parcels can be accomplished by placing it in flexible pouch that defines the reusable container therefor.
The shipping packages are then place in carton totes that each have a bottom and a surrounding side wall forming an interior. Such carton tote, upon being filled with shipping packages, defines a filled carton tote with this step being accomplished at either the respective origin locations or at a regional collection center. The plurality of filled carton totes are conveyed to a centralized distribution center. At the centralized distribution center, the shipping packages are removed from the carton totes. The shipping packages are then sorted by geographic region corresponding to the destination addresses thereof to define regionalized shipping packages. The regionalized shipping packages are replaced in carton totes to define regionalized filled carton totes. The regionalized filled carton totes are then conveyed to respective regional distribution centers. At each regionalized distribution center, the shipping packages are removed from the regionalized filled carton totes. The shipping packages are sorted by destination addresses and delivered from the regional distribution center to the destination address.
According to one embodiment of the method, each said container is provided with a label panel secured thereto, said label panel including an exposed surface portion formed of a release material. Here, the step of labeling may be accomplished by placing information corresponding to the address of the respective recipient on a removable strip constructed of a selected strip material and having a layer of a selected adhesive. The adhesive is selected to adhere sufficiently to the release material to retain the label on the container body during shipment yet to be able to selectively release from the release material without tearing said strip material to define a labeled package. This method then can include a steps of removing the removable strip from at least some of said labeled packages at a respective destination location to define recycled containers and reusing at least some of said recycled containers for subsequent packaging and shipment of parcels.
The method of shipping parcels can also be used where each said container is provided with a signal transmitter secured thereto with each said signal transmitter operative to transmit a unique identifier signal. Here, the step of labeling each container can be accomplished by correlating the respective unique identifier signal with the respective information corresponding to the address of the respective intended recipient.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily appreciated and understood from a consideration of the following detailed description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention when taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which: